We are all about getting out and exploring the great outdoors. Take your kids on a hike, a walk, on an art crawl around Southside, Glass Street, Montague Park, or the Riverview Art District. Take your kids to explore downtown or Northshore. Just get out and go, but be prepared.
Little legs get tired and then the little bodies get whiny. Sometimes, the little legs aren’t able to walk yet. So, what do you do?
Baby carrier or stroller? Let’s break this down.
Baby Carrier
We have used three different baby carriers with our three kids: WildBird sling, SollyBaby wrap, and Ergo baby carrier. My preference is the Ergo. However, the SollyBaby is the runner up, but only for newborns. The SollyBaby is the better option for newborns because it holds them tight and close, but it has a weight limit as your baby gets older (around 25 pounds). I’ve found it yanks uncomfortably on your sides and begins to stretch out as your baby gets past 6 months.
We have had and used the Ergo almost daily for six years. The Ergo 360 is amazing because you can wear them in front or, as they get older, on your back. The Ergo 360 can hold up to 50 lbs. Which according to the internet is an average 6 year old! It is designed well with support straps that spread out of the weight of your little tanker truck so as not to cause discomfort.
Carriers are also great for getting stuff done around the house. Pop your little potato in the carrier and wash some dishes, make a meal, stand and fold laundry, sweep, vacuum, mop, whatever! There are times when my kids make it impossible to get anything done around the house (I know that absolutely NONE of you can relate) and the only way to make it work is turning on some showtime for the two bigger kids and popping the baby in the carrier.
Whatever carrier you chose, you will also benefit from the all-loving snuggle nap. The gentle sway of your walking combined with the warm embrace of the carrier will almost guarantee that your kid will fall asleep. There have been seasons of our parenting with all three of our kids when I have gone out on a walk with the sole purpose of having my kid nap. I began to start reading while walking and was able to power through over fifty books every year from 2018-2020, but then the world changed and life got more complicated. Anyways…carrier naps can be a life saver.
Stroller
For some people the go-to is a stroller. Which is totally get, less stress on the body, a little easier to get out and go, and the STORAGE! You’ve got the whole gamut of strollers from $20 umbrella strollers that I associate more with a child pushing around a babydoll to the $8,000 Silver Cross Surf Aston Martin made in collaboration with the luxury car brand Aston Martin. Just as some people are obsessive about the color and type of their baby carrier, you find staunch defenders of “this” stroller or “that” stroller.
We didn’t even have a stroller until our second kid was six months old. We just made it work with an Ergo 360 and occasionally a tricycle with a push bar. The type we got was a BOB single jogging stroller. It’s great for long walks when I had both kids, the littlest was in the carrier and the older one in the stroller. It’s nice because it has that little footrest that another kid can sit in and you can squeak out a fake double stroller with your single. Obviously, it’s great for taking on a run.
There are some downsides to a stroller. First, they are big and if you don’t have a garage like us then you have a storage problem. We tried leaving it just on our covered porch, but that didn’t work out. So, we have resolved to just leave it in the trunk of the car rendering our trunk entirely useless. Second, if you are using a jogging stroller with the front wheel locking feature, make sure that you actually lock the front wheel when going for a run. One day I took my kids out, the oldest was biking and I was running with the middle child just sitting in the stroller. Well, unknown to me he had unbuckled himself and I had forgotten to lock the front wheel. Well, long story short… a speed bump flipped the stroller over and sent my son flying through the air like a t-shirt from one of those cannons at a New York Knicks game. Talk about a very “middle child” situation.
Summary
It’s probably a little obvious that I prefer a baby carrier, but it should also be known that my kids are young enough that the carrier is mostly all we need. The only times I use the stroller is for a run, which usually is with my oldest son who is riding his bike, and when I have all three kids with me on a walk. In this case, my baby is in the carrier, middle kid in the stroller, and oldest on the bike.
You do you.
If you prefer a carrier, rock it!
If you like a stroller more, roll it!
Whatever you do… just get out and have fun!